Archive: 2012
Personalized Learning
Placement Exams: The Hidden Gateway
While many have focused on ACT and SAT, the tests that drive attendance at selectives (a small percentage of post secondary students), there has been little attention paid to placement exams—the real hurdle in the system for young adults that want to earn college credit. JFF just released a must read report, Where to Begin? The Evolving Role of Placement Exams.
EdTech
Bloomboard Powers Improved Teacher Effectiveness in Colorado
The push for better teacher observation, evaluation and development started about the same time Jason Lange was finishing up a master's degree in education at Stanford. Jason could see there was a big opportunity for easy to use tools and personalized learning for teachers. Jason applied to be part of the first cohort of edtech incubator Imagine K12, and Palo Alto-based Bloomboard was born.
Personalized Learning
It’s Student in Action, Not Inaction
The natural state of children is “in motion.” They are not simply pictures, they are motion pictures. A classroom full of third graders is a lot like a pool of sharks, except scarier. We are all aware of this natural state of activity yet we’ve managed to take our adult cubical workspace and force it upon the classroom.
Leadership
DIY: Raising Money
Raising money is a function of delivering the right pitch to the right person. That's true for impact seeking investments from foundations and return seeing investments from private equity investors.
EdTech
5 Key Ways to Implement Technology In Learning
The use of new kinds of technology will improve your teaching methods. It will serve to simplify the lesson planning process because you will have access to many new resources. Here are five ways you can include technological advances in your classroom.
Personalized Learning
Digital Learning Provides Customization, Motivation & Equalization
The emerging benefits of digital learning include: customized learning allows students to vary rate, time, location, and (increasingly) path--that means more learning per hour; engaging content and the motivation of instant feedback attack boredom and extend learning; and high access environments and take home tech for every student that will narrow the digital divide and extend access to quality teachers and content.
Leadership
New Report Highlights the Real Teacher-Retention Crisis in America
Our friends from the Foundation for Excellence in Education and the Chiefs for Change recommend a new TNTP report, “The Irreplaceables: Understanding the Real Retention Crisis in America’s Urban Schools.” It examines the teacher-retention crisis through the experiences of a group referred to as the “Irreplaceables” – teachers who…
Personalized Learning
Autistic Student Feels Reinspired by Online Learning
I love online learning! It has changed my life. Back in 10th grade I had a bad attitude because school was very frustrating. There were distractions all the time. Classes were really stressful to me because of the chaos. Also, the teachers talked too fast and didn’t use enough visual aids, and they changed topics a lot. Then came online learning.
Personalized Learning
Q&A: College Guidance Counseling, For Free!
By: Jaclyn Norton. College Mapper, an online college counseling service, recently launched to provide support for students and parents in the college application process. CEO Susanna Cerasuolo sets out to increase access to higher education for all people through this free service. See below for Cerasuolo’s thoughts on the current-day process of college admissions, and ever changing nature of higher education.
Leadership
Good Work: Impact Takes Vision, Values, and Good Timing
Making a difference takes a compelling vision, productive values, and good timing.